Life-saving attachment for motor-cars.



PATENTED DEC. 20, 1904.

B. 'LEV. LIFE SAVING ATTACHMENT FOR MOTOR CARS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 21. IQOL BEHEWED HAY 6, 1904- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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PATENTED DEC. 20, 1904.

. v B. LEV. LIFE SAVING'ATTAGHMENT ran MOTOR CARS.

APPL IOATIOH FILED MAR. 21. 1903. RENEWED MAY 8, 1904.

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EN 74 -A UNITED STATEs Patented December 20, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE. I

BENJAMIN LEV, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TOAMERICAN SECURITY AND TRUST COMPANY, TRUSTEE, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OFCOLUMBIA, A CORPORATION.

LIFE-SAVING ATTACHMENT FOR MOTOR-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 778,198, dated December20, 1904,,

Application filed March 21, 1903. Renewed May 6, 1904. Serial No.206,696.

T0 at whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN LEV, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Life-Saving Attachmentsfor Motor- Cars; and I do declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, which willenable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to life-saving attachments for motor-cars; and theobject of the invention is to provide means adapted to be attached tothe front of a car and to run comparatively near to the surface of thetrack and to operate as a medium for picking up and carrying persons whomay accidentally or otherwise come into the path of the car and whowould probably be crushed or materially injured if no such provision asthis were made for their safety.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective elevation of thefront portion of a car and my safety mechanism in working positionthereon. Fig. 2 shows a .portion of said mechanism and a small fragmentof the front of the car in side elevation, as hereinafter fullydescribed. Fig. 3 shows a fragment of the front portion of a car and aside elevation of the safety mechanism thereon, the dotted lines showingit as it appears ordinarily when carried on the car and the full linesas it appears when tilted into safety or carrying position. Fig. 4cshows the same parts as in Fig. 3 with the safety attachment folded upinto vertical position at the front of the car, where it is wholly outof service and in which position it is adapted to be carried when thecar is coupled up with another car at its front.

In the construction thus shown A represents what may be any motor-carequipped to carry passengers or a freight-car or one used for motorpurposes alone, and B represents a spring buffer or cushion aflixed tothe front of the car and which may be of strips of spring metal,substantially as herein shown, or of any other form of spring metal orother material adapted to serve as a cushion and to protect a person whomay be thrown against the same upon safety carrier or guard C.

Said carrier or guard C is constructed, pref' erably, with an outerframe 0 and interwoven metallic slats 0, of spring metal, securedthereto at their ends. I This or any equivalent or sufficientconstruction of body-carrier may be employed, and the said carrier has awidth at least equal to the-full width of the car, so that if. any onebe cast of]? therefrom or fall from either side he will drop outside thepath of the car and out of danger on that account. At the front 6r saidcarrier or guard I provide a roller R, journaled at its ends in theforwardly-projecting extremities of frame a and designed to be of a'cushioning or yielding construction, and the special construction of theroller used is a new article of manufacture and sale which is made thesubject-mat ter of a concurrent application, Serial No. 145,829, andhence is not specifically claimed herein. It is not designed that thisroller shall run upon the track when in its lowest working position,though even this may occur sometimes, and its ordinary working elevationis shown in dotted lines, Fig. 3.

The instant that carrier or guard C is tripped by, a weight falling onits rear portion it tilts into the reversed position and assumes therelation to the other parts seen in full lines, Fig; 3. To the end thatthese operations'may occur, the said carrier is supported at its sides,front of its middle portion, on pivots d at the extremities of thesupporting side arms D, which themselves are engaged or hooked at theirrear extremities over projections 2 on the right-angled adjustablehangers E. Frequently it is desirable to changethe carrier from one endof'a car to the other at the ends of trips, and hence it is made easilydetachable. The hangers E are supported on brackets F, fixed to thebottom of the car and which are provided with one or more series ofholes bracket according to the position the carrier is to sustain uponthe car. Such adjustment is found desirable on account of the manydifferent makes of cars and the possible obstruction met with on thefront of a car, such as headlights, and the like. The hangersEthemselveshave perforations t to provide this adjustment back and forward as wellas for elevation on the said bracket, and a bracket or its equivalentmay be used as a support for the hanger.

The side supporting arms D are connected by two or more cross-bars (Z,which make what is practically a framework and give said parts therequisite strength to sustain the severe strain that may come upon themin an emergency when the carrier is picking up a person or other heavyobject.

Strong chains G connect the upper ends of the right-angled hangers Ewith the outer extremities of said arms D and serve as suspensory meansfor. the said arms and carrier, and the arms cannot d rop below thelevel permitted by these chains. Said chains therefore serve also as amedium for regulating the elevation of the outer ends of the arms andthe elevation of the carrier at its pivot in respect to the cartrack.However, the carrier has its own individual chain H connected with itsrear portion and with one of the cross-bars d and which is adapted tofix the elevation upon which the carrier is to run at its front. Thisadjustment is independent of chains Gr.

Obviously since the carrier is pivoted forward of its middle portion andis designed to run in a tilted position with its front end downrelatively, as in Fig. 1, it must in any event be considerably heavierat its front to counterbalanee its rear portion and carry in this way,and the front roller R helps to produce this effect; but the instantthat a person or other object is struck by the roller and thrown backupon the carrier across or behind its pivots the rear of the carrierdrops down and the person or other object is supported upon the carrierand carried along without further danger or injury. In this case theslats d or conneetions between arms D work with the carrier to sustainthe load in safety.

In my repeated and somewhat-protracted demonstration of such safetymechanism I have found that almost universally people who are run overby cars are on their feet at the time they are struck. Sometimes, butvery rarely, it occurs that a person is prostrate when the car reacheshim. In a hundred or more accidents in which my fender has been usedthere were not exceeding two cases where the person was lying upon theground when struck by the car. In those cases the lifeguard did not doits work, and I may say that it is not intended to pick up prostrateforms or other objects lying as close as that to the ground; but I havenever known it to fail to save any one, large or small, who was on hisfeet at the time, and hence was struck in such a way as to forciblythrow the person over upon the guard or carrier C and toward and againstbuffer B. Once there the guard or carrier tilted down at the rear and acradle was formed which held the body in safety, and this will occurwith children and even comparatively small dogs and the like, asexperience has demonstrated. By disconnecting chains G and H and arms I)from projections 2 the carrier, with said arms and the frame of whichthey are a part, can be lifted bodily away and placed on the other endof the ear or elsewhere, as may be deemed best, or in certain cases theentire structure can be tilted vertically at the front of the car andheld there, as in Fig. a.

Obviously the strain of the thrust backward upon the carrier O when anobject is struck is communicated to the arms I) through pivots (Z andthen to lugs and projections 2, and it is to be understood that allthese parts are built with these demands upon them in view and to end inextraordinary strain in extra emergencies.

The particular hangers E, so called, or their equivalent in one or moreparts, may be used, as shall be found most convenient on different makesof cars.

Another important part of my invention is the buffer or fender B. Thisis not only a yielding member or part; but it is so constructed andarranged as to become in itself a safety member, as of convenience inuse. Thus the said member consists of or comprises a series of fiatsprings I), bent back at the upper end in a short curve and connected bytwo or more cross bars or pieces 6, which bind them all firmly together,and they are provided with side portions '7, having slots 8 and 9 andadapted to engage on corresponding lugs or pins 10 and 11 on the frontupright portion of hangers E. The upper slot 9 is open, so that the saidbuffer or fender frame can be raised upon pins 10 and 11, and whencarrier O is tilted down at the rear said frame can be turned down overit relatively, as in Fig. 2, only in this case carrier O is not shown.It is important that this be done, as in case it be necessary to coupleup a car at this end with the carrier thereon and for other reasons aswell, and the said fender can be individually removed or with the safetydevice as a whole. It will also be observed that it has no connectionwith the car-body, but stands out therefrom at such distance that thefender cannot strike against the car when a body be thrown against it inthe onward sweep of the car. There is danger that so called safetydevices themselves will kill people by reason of defective construction,and it is not enough to pick up a body; but it needs to be protectedfrom having the life knocked out of it by the faulty construction of thesaving device. Hence the removal of my fender ISO ' free spring action.thereof and the carrier which catches the body.

What I claim is- 1. In safety attachments for motor-cars, a tiltingsafety-carrier, supporting-arms there- 'for at its sides on which saidcarrier is pivoted, hangers on which said arms are detachably engaged attheir rear ends, means to ad ustably support said hangers on thecarbody, and chains connected with said hangers and the front ends ofsaid supporting-arms, whereby the elevation of said arms can be changedat both ends and the carrier adapted to its place, substantially asdescribed.

2. A car and a pair of substantially rightangled hangers thereon, incombination with a pair of arms detachably supported on said hangers, achain connection between the top of each hanger and the front end of thecorresponding arm, whereby the elevation of the front ends of said armsmay be changed, a carrier pivoted upon said arms and adapted to tiltbetween the same, and means to fix the working inclination of thecarrier, substantially as described.

'3. The carrier and the supports therefor fixed upon the car, incombination with a spring-buffer pivotally engaged on said supportsindependently of the carrier and adapted to fold over upon the carrier,substantially as described.

4. The safety attachment comprising a spring-buffer adapted to stand infront of the car and apart therefrom, separate supports for said buiferprojecting forward from the car-body and means to attach the buffer tosaid supports, said means constructed to hold the buffer erect when inuse and to pivotally lower the same when not in use, substantially asdescribed. 5. The car-body and the hangers supported thereon andextending forward in advance of said body, in combination with a buffersup ported at its ends on said hangers and means on said parts to holdthe fender in an erect position and to turn it down, in combination witha tilting carrier in front of said buffer and means connected with saidhangers supporting the same, substantially as described.

Witness my hand to the foregoing specification this 24th day ofFebruary, 1903.

, BENJAMIN LEV. Witnesses: R. B. MOSER,

R. ZBORNIK.

